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MUSI 1003: Popular Music and Diversity in American Society
Tuesday & Thursday 1111.50, Von der Mehden Recital Hall
Instructor
Dr Alain Frogley: Music 104, tel. 4862940, alain.frogley@uconn.edu
office hours: Tu 34, Th 24
Teaching assistants & discussion section times (office hours tba)
Penny Brandt: M 2,W 3, Th 2; DramaMusic 154A, 4862663, penny.brandt@uconn.edu
Ryan Weber: Tu2, Tu 3, W 11; DramaMusic 150, tel. 4865454, ryan.weber@uconn.edu
Course Description
MUSI 1003, a new course generously supported by a Provost’s General Education
Course Development Grant, falls within both Content Area 1 (Arts and Humanities)
and Content Area 4 (Diversity and Multiculturalism) of the General Education
curriculum (more information on the goals of these content areas is provided below). It
will encourage you to think critically and creatively about popular music and its social
and historical meanings and contexts, particularly in relation to issues of diversity. The
focus is on American popular music of the last one hundred years or so, and
particularly the last fifty. We will study significant styles of American popular music in
chronological order, and will explore several recurring themes throughout the course:
the role of popular music as a symbol of identity (race, class, gender, generation)
the interaction of European American, African American, and Latin American
traditions
the influence of mass media and technology (printing, recording, radio, video, internet)
Goals and outcomes
The course is intended to enhance your enjoyment and understanding of the music you
already know, as well as introduce you to less familiar styles and genres – to enable you
to become more informed consumers of popular music.
More specifically, upon completion of the course, students should have:
1) acquired knowledge about the rich variety of popular musics in the United States
from cultural, historical, and structural/stylistic perspectives
2) gained understanding of the ways in which these musics have expressed and
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continue to express the responses of diverse groups to their position and status in
regional and national culture, including resistance to hegemonic interpretation and
appropriation
3) become sensitive to a variety of ways in which music may encode and actualize
social power relationships, and to how this is reflected in music to which they choose to
listen or to which they are exposed in advertising, shopping malls, movies etc.
In order to assess your progress toward these intended outcomes, we will be asking you
at various point to reflect upon your experience in the course.
Learning Methods
Classroom lectures and smaller discussion groups
Critical reading of a textbook survey and primary sources representing diverse
experiences
Critical listening to audio and video recordings, and live performances
Required textbook purchases
1. Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman, American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to
MP3, 3rd edition, Oxford University Press, 2009
2. David Brackett, ed., The Pop, Rock, and Soul Reader: Histories and Debates, 2nd
edition, Oxford University Press, 2009
NB: Oxford University Press has provided these two books as a bundled pair for the
UConn Coop, which offers you a substantial discount in relation to trying to buy them
separately elsewhere.
Bring your textbook to every class.
Wk 1 Introduction: Music, identity, and diversity
The elements of music
19C and early 20C roots (Starr & Waterman Chaps. 13)
2 Popular song genres c. 19201945 (Starr & Waterman Chap. 4)
Blues and hillbilly music in the 1920s (Starr & Waterman Chap. 5)
3 Racial politics and the rise of jazz (Starr & Waterman Chap. 6)
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4 The postwar decade and rock ‘n roll (Starr & Waterman Chs. 78)
Test 1: practice test, Thursday February 10 (all material up to this
point in course)
5 American Pop & the ‘British Invasion’ (Starr & Waterman Chap. 9)
6 Country, Soul, and Folk in the 1960s
(Starr & Waterman Chap. 10)
7 Test 2: midterm exam, Tuesday March 1; material Wks 16
Country, Soul, and Folk in the 1960s, cont.
8 [no classes: Spring Break – Cancun!!!]
9 Rock and Disco c. 19671978 (Starr & Waterman Chaps. 1011)
10 ‘Outsider’ genres in the 1970s: outlaws, punks and funk
(Starr & Waterman Chap. 12)
First paper due Friday March 25
11 Salsa and the rise of Latin Music (Starr & Waterman Chap. 12)
12 Grrrl power: women and pop music from the mid1970s
(Starr & Waterman Chap. 13)
13 The 1990s: Hiphop (Starr & Waterman Chap. 14)
Second paper due Friday April 15
14 The 1990s cont.: ‘Alternative’ musics (Starr & Waterman Chap. 14)
15 Who are you/we now? Music and multiple identities from the local to the global
(Starr & Waterman Chap. 15)
16 [Exam week] Test 3: final exam, Tuesday May 3, 10.3012.30
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Requirements and Grading
1. Homework Assignments (not graded): Prepare for every class by doing the reading
and listening to be discussed ahead of time (see below for details of required text).
You should bring the StarrWaterman book to every class.
2. Exams (60%): There will be three tests as shown. To allow for the fact that most of you
will never have taken a music exam, Test 1 will be purely a practice test, and will not
count towards your grade. The Midterm and the Final will each count for 30% of your
semester grade, and each covers approximately half of the course material (see details
on schedule above); the Final is therefore not cumulative, but the Midterm will include
material covered in the practiceonly Test 1.
The tests will include the aural identification of pieces discussed in class and/or
assigned for homework listening, and multiplechoice questions on these pieces and all
other aspects of the course. More detail will be provided as the first test approaches. But
I should stress that developing the ability to listen carefully and critically, as well as to
understand the social and cultural issues discussed in the course, is an extremely
important part of this course. Avoid cramming for these exams at all costs! They will
only be easy if you prepare regularly and well. For both midterm and final, we will be
using computerscanned exam forms; you are required to bring two No. 2 pencils, a
clipboard or other hard writing surface (NOT your music textbook or notebook!), and
your UConn ID. Makeup exams will be allowed only in the case of a medical
emergency, verified by a doctor’s note. There are no exceptions to this policy.
3. Papers (20%): You will be required to write two 2page papers, one on issues of race
and music, the other on gender; each will count for 10% of your grade. The first will be
due on Friday March 25, the second on Friday April 15. These will be submitted to your
discussion section TAs, and they will provide you with more details as the semester
progresses.
3. Lecture attendance and discussion participation (20%)
You are expected to be present for all lectures. While it is impractical in a class of this
size to take attendance in lectures, PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU WILL NOT DO YOUR
BEST IN THIS COURSE IF YOU MISS LECTURES FREQUENTLY: YOU CANNOT GET
EVERYTHING YOU NEED FROM THE TEXTBOOK. As we are running the course in
this particular format for the first time, this is a provisional schedule, and although I
shall follow the broad outline as closely as possible, I reserve the right to make changes;
in other words, don't use this as a handy guide to skipping the classes you think might
be boring! (not that I believe for one moment that you would do this, of course). You
might well miss the lecture that turns out to be crucial for the exam . . . If you have a
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genuine need to miss a class, however, I shall certainly do my best to tell you in
advance what will be covered that day.
Participation in discussion sections will be assessed according to two elements,
attendance (obviously you cannot participate if you are not present) and contribution.
Attendance will be taken every week in discussion sections; more than two unexcused
absences will lower your grade. Your contribution will be assessed in terms of your
willingness to make regular attempts to answer questions or otherwise participate in
class discussion. You will be given ample notice by your TA if you do not appear to be
making adequate attempts to contribute, or you have attendance problems. The
assumption is that every student should be able to receive an A for this portion of the
course.
Students with Disabilities
Students with disabilities should contact the disability office for information on test
procedures before discussing this with me and in any case well before any exams or
assignments.
Academic Misconduct Statement
Academic misconduct in any form is in violation of the University of Connecticut
Student Conduct Code and will not be tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to,
copying or sharing answers on tests or assignments, plagiarism, and having someone
else do your academic work. Depending on the act, a student could receive an F grade
on the test/assignment, an F for the course, or could be suspended or expelled.
Reading and Listening Assignments
In addition to the chapters in American Popular Music specified on the schedule, you
are also expected to listen to the songs discussed in detail in the text and which are
found on the 2CD set that accompanies the textbook. Some of the songs discussed in
the text are not on the CDs but can be downloaded from a special iMix selection
prepared for the book, which is accessible at the book’s website
http://www.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780195396300/?view=usa
(You can also find here other resources, such as chapter summaries and review
questions, and Powerpoint slides that I will sometimes be using in class: click on
‘Instructor Resources’ and the chapter you want to find a list). I will specify certain iMix
tracks that I expect you to know for the exam and that you will therefore need to
download for your own use. The tracks are typically 99c each. I will certainly not be
discussing every track in the book. In any case, you will receive more information on
this later. AF 1/18/11
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Goals for General Education courses as articulated by the General Education Oversight
Committee (extracted from GEOC website, geoc.uconn.edu)
The purpose of general education is to ensure that all University of Connecticut
undergraduate students:
1. become articulate, 2. acquire intellectual breadth and versatility, 3. acquire critical
judgment, 4. acquire moral sensitivity, 5. acquire awareness of their era and society, 6.
acquire consciousness of the diversity of human culture and experience, and 7. acquire
a working understanding of the processes by which they can continue to acquire and
use knowledge.
Group 1 courses (Arts and Humanities) should provide a broad vision of artistic
and humanist themes. These courses should enable students themselves to study and
understand the artistic, cultural and historical processes of humanity. They should
encourage students to explore their own traditions and their places within the larger
world so that they, as informed citizens, may participate more fully in the rich diversity
of human languages and cultures. The primary modes of exploration and inquiry
within the Arts and Humanities are historical, critical, and aesthetic.
Group 4 courses (Diversity and Multiculturalism). In this interconnected global
community, individuals of any profession need to be able to understand, appreciate,
and function in cultures other than their own. Diversity and multiculturalism in the
university curriculum contribute to this essential aspect of education by bringing to the
fore the historical truths about different cultural perspectives, especially those of groups
that traditionally have been underrepresented. These groups might be characterized by
such features as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identities, political systems, or religious
traditions, or by persons with disabilities. By studying the ideas, history, values, and
creative expressions of diverse groups, students gain appreciation for differences as
well as commonalities among people. Subject matter alone cannot define multicultural
education. A key element is to examine the subject from the perspective of the group
that generates the culture. The inquiry needs to be structured by the concepts, ideas,
beliefs, and/or values of the culture under study. Regardless of the approach, courses
should view the studied group(s) as authors and agents in the making of history.
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MUSI 1003: Musical background and tastes
1. Name:
Major:
Discussion Section time:
2. Do you: (a) play an instrument/sing (other than in shower)? If yes, explain
(b) read music?
(c) have any background in music theory (harmony etc.)? If yes, explain
3. List some favourite types of music, favourite bands, singers etc.
4. Any other comments, observations, e.g. a particularly memorable musical experience
in your life